Does your health insurance company offer a cash or cash like rewards program?

[kdonnel]

It is that time a year again where my wife and I have to jump through a few hoops to claim the rewards money offered by our health insurance companies.

Mine offers up to $300 and gives various simple ways to earn the money which can be turned into various gift cards, so almost cash. For example I can join virtual challenges and link my Fitbit so that once I meet certain goals I earn $25. The big ones are $100 for a biometric screening and $300 for joining and completing a smoking cessation program. I can get $275 of it with no out of pocket. The last $25 is problematic because it generally involves a doctor visit so that last $25 is a wash once I pay the copay.

Hers offers up to $1200 and has more complicated ways to earn the money which can only be used to pay medical bills including copays and unused but earned money does rollover from year to year. She gets $600 by signing up with their coaching service which calls once a month to discuss her progress on the health goals agreed upon in the first call. The final $600 is earned much like mine by performing healthy actions, getting a physical, and or biometric screening and actions that end up costing a copay like skin cancer screening, etc.

 

[dolewhipdreams]

We have a program similar to yours where there are challenges and things you can do to earn points, which translate to dollars at the end of the year. The difference is anything we earned gets paid to us via payroll. My DH and I are both on it and we can earn up to $700 combined each year. It gets paid out in early December so it's great Christmas money that we get with very little effort on our part since most of the challenges are things we do anyway (walk a certain number of steps, track fruit & veggie servings, etc).

 

[Ellie008]

Ours offers $500 per person for DH and I if we jump through some hoops. DH always manages to get the full amount, I usually forget some of the hoops (~$200 of it is from monthly goal tracking through the whole year) and end up with around $350.

 

[cabanafrau]

No. We could select a health insurance option that offers a program like this. We choose not to because it also restricts our access to the more highly rated doctors in our area.

 

[SC Minnie]

Yes. Our company switched to Virgin Pulse last year. We can earn up to $100/quarter by syncing with FitBit, doing challenges, getting your health screening (which they do at the office), flu shot, daily nutrition cards, etc. It get put on gift cards. I put mine on Visa gift cards. Was able to use last years to pay for an excursion when we were in Hawaii so worked out! Less than 50% of the people here actually do it.

The program we had before was paid via payroll and our spouses could particpate but not with the new one.

 

[soccerdad72]

Not our insurance company, but my employer does something similar.

 

[Lilacs4Me]

Not the company per se, but we do get the following from our companies:

Virgin Pulse - yes, to $100/year. I've earned $25 so far, chosen to be redeemed in Target giftcards.
Being a non-smoker - yes - $25/paycheck deduction from ins premiums
Getting a physical every year - yes - $25/paycheck deduction from ins premiums

We used to get up to $900 put into our HSA account ($500 gifted from the company, and $200/ea for DH and I doing their health fair screening and getting a flu shot each year), then they changed it to $250 spread out into quarterly deposits, so....$62.50 every three months. Big whoop.

Neither my or DH's companies will allow us to be on each other's plans, so I carry the kids (It was break-even, essentially, and I have more control over getting information from my insurance since his won't even talk to me, so i carry them).

DH does get up to $600 for his HSA *IF* he would do the darn programs! He gets $400 just for having a HD plan with a HSA, but he could earn $200 more if he would do their surveys and other health programs. It's stupid not to take the free money, but he just won't do it! If he carried the kids, he would get up to $1000. But his plans have a higher deductible than mine, so the extra $400 would be a wash.

I really, really miss the days where $900 would be deposited into my HSA on Jan 1.

 

[smokeyblue]

I get $1,300 put into my HSA for various preventative care visits and healthy activities. It covers half my max out of pocket for the year so I think it's a good incentive.

 

[apirateslifeforme]

DH is the policy holder, and only he can receive the incentive offered by our health insurance. They offer a $100 Visa gift card for "overall healthy but has room for improvement" and a $300 Visa gift card for "everything's good." It's up to your doctor to determine what he/she feels you should receive. I'm kind of peeved that his doctor originally checked off "Healthy, may receive full incentive," then crossed it off and checked the box for "needs improvement," so he only got the $100 card. The ONLY thing that he needs to do is lose FOUR POUNDS. Seriously. She deems him overweight by four freaking pounds...

(Yet the doctor of the coworker who weighs between 350-400 lbs. - no joke - checked the box for full incentive and she received the $300 card.)

 

[Skippy918]

We get a 250 premium discount for doing a well check. My company matches HSA without having to do anything extra.

 

[MrsJackSparrow4Life]

Sort of...If we earn 200 health points each year our premium is 30% cheaper.

 

[tvguy]

The big ones are $100 for a biometric screening and $300 for joining and completing a smoking cessation program. I can get $275 of it with no out of pocket. The last $25 is problematic because it generally involves a doctor visit so that last $25 is a wash once I pay the copay.

You have amazing insurance. We haven't had only a $25 co-pay to see a Doctor since our son was born in 1987. Our current co-pay to see the Doctor is $380.
I'm on my wife's plan because my plan is nuts. No incentives, just disincentives. There is a $2,000 surcharge for every person covered on your insurance if they smoke, and a $3,000 surcharge if a dependent is on your plan that has an option to get coverage through their employer.

 

[LJSquishy]

I've never heard of such a thing but that's awesome. We've always had big brand insurance like Premera Blue Cross and Cigna and they don't offer anything like that.

 

[dotfurio]

If I go for a health screening I get a $25 Amazon gift card. They come out to the workplace for a window of time to do it. I did it one year but $25 is just not really worth the long wait to me.

 

[powellrj]

Not anymore.

 

[slpeters]

We're both on my employer plan. We get almost a thousand in premium discounts and Medical Reimbursement Account deposits for doing the yearly health assessment. Then there's about an additional thousand we can get for the MRA by doing the little activities and the like. I kind of wish there were gift cards or something because, since pretty much everything we do with our insurance is fully covered, our MRA just kind of keeps building. We could cover our max household out of pocket for a couple years out of it at this point. I kind of feel (knock on wood) like we're never going to see that money, but I suppose that's a pretty good result in the long run...

 

[DawnM]

My husband's used to offer a really good one, but they have stopped. I haven't looked for this year though. We used to get $400/year, which really helped with my son's $700 deductible as he needed therapy for a few years.

 

[kimblebee]

You have amazing insurance. We haven't had only a $25 co-pay to see a Doctor since our son was born in 1987. Our current co-pay to see the Doctor is $380.
I'm on my wife's plan because my plan is nuts. No incentives, just disincentives. There is a $2,000 surcharge for every person covered on your insurance if they smoke, and a $3,000 surcharge if a dependent is on your plan that has an option to get coverage through their employer.

$380 to see a doctor? Holy cow. No wonder people don’t go see the dr for just the sniffles.

 

[firefly_ris]

Not the current one, but the last provider had a thing where every $2 you spent on vegetables and fruit at the grocery store you got $1 back. Every quarter they would load a local grocery store gift card with the money and mail it.

 

[Boardwalk Jedi]

We have a fitness/health promotion discount to our health plan which is actually a PITA to deal with. Some people just don't bother with it....or take it and let it run out when the company says "you're not updating your weekly information".